Conventional abs ent products of the above-mentioned types usually have a rectangular or hour-glass appearance.
One problem associated with these shapes of absorbent product is the increasing use of string briefs. A product of rectangular hour-glass form will protrude beyond the edges of the string briefs and spoil somewhat the elegance which is the whole point of wearing this type of underwear. The alternative is to make the product sufficiently narrow so that the entire product width will be contained within the conies of the narrowest part of the string briefs. The absorption capacity of a product made in this way will however be very limited.
It has therefore been proposed to design the absorbent products with a narrower part and a wider part. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,886, U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,835 and WO 97/39713.
WO97/39713 describes a sanitary towel with one end having a tapered three-dimensional form, and a second plane end with a straight form. One problem connected with the sanitary towel described in WO97/39713 is that no guidance is provided as to the dimensions required to make this a discreet product. Another problem with a product according to WO97/39713 is that the absorbent product has an end with straight form, which is also unsatisfactory from the discretion point of view.